The term water-in-oil emulsion or inverse emulsion refers to an aqueous phase (discontinuous phase) dispersed in a non-aqueous organic phase (continuous phase). In such emulsions, the active water soluble polymers are coiled inside the discontinuous aqueous phase.
Corn syrup or hydrolyzed glucose syrup or dextrose syrup is made from the starch of maize. Traditionally, it was produced by acid hydrolysis of corn starch with dilute hydrochloric acid then heating the mixture under pressure to break down the starch molecules into sugar. Currently, corn syrup is produced by enzymatic processes.
Corn syrup solids are manufactured by concentrating corn syrup liquid and removing up to 97% of its water.
High fructose corn syrup or HFCS is made from corn syrup through an enzymatic process that converts the dextrose sugar in the corn syrup into fructose sugar. It is sweeter than corn syrup.
Water-soluble polymers such as polyacrylamide and various copolymers have previously been used for many applications within a variety of industries: Mobility control polymers within the oil and gas industry and as flocculants within oil and gas, waste water treatment, food and beverage, papermaking, and mining industries. Further, these polymers have been shown to improve sweep efficiency, within the oil industry, by increasing the viscosity of the aqueous flooding fluid and decrease pumping pressure losses in hydraulic fracturing by reducing friction. These polymers can be prepared as emulsions because handling of these polymers in the dry powdered form can be difficult.
Water-in-oil or inverse emulsions are typically used because of their ease of handling, ability to prepare the polymers at high concentrations, and lower viscosity as compared to solution polymers. When introduced into an aqueous solution, the emulsion must invert quickly and release the polymers into solution allowing them to achieve their optimum performance. Therefore, breaker surfactants or inverters or inverting surfactants have been commonly used to disturb the stable inverse emulsion resulting in an inverted polymer. It is desired that the emulsion inverts rapidly and completely so that the friction-reducing polymers can reduce the frictional losses and reduce the amount of energy required to pump the fluid through the conduit.
Upon inversion of the emulsion, the polymers need to be reorganized, and hydrated in order to act as flocculants or friction reducers. Additionally, problems can occur when the aqueous fluid to which the polymer is added contains high salinity. The high salinity can hinder the inversion and hydration process.
Therefore, a need exits to develop methods to quickly invert inverse emulsion polymers thereby exposing the active polymers to achieve their optimum performance especially in high salinity environments.